i think a lot of it depends on mitch mcconnell, the senate minority leader, if he decides to allow a bill to move forward on the floor. >> is there anything going on behind the scenes that we don't know about? >> there is. the president's playing golf in hawaii. there's nothing going on behind the scenes. >> there's not some -- >> meetings going on in the white house, there's not staff -- >> lining up a putt? >> no, which is difficult, because there's lots of other stuff that has to go into what the president talks about before he left on friday, which is the tax rates. he didn't talk about payroll tax cut, amt, a number of things. there's a lot that has to go into a final deal and how they get that done. >> my worry is we're not talking about early january, we're talking about late january. >> i think it's probably more mid january if we go over. because i think you'll see market reaction, and you'll see a lot of people freak out, and it's a problem. >> market reaction, would you think -- >> people still think it's, you know, we get a deal. last-minute deal. i tend to be an optimist